“I am proud to say that for two consecutive years Mobil Steel employees have delivered on the promise of a safe and healthy workplace. Last year we qualified for silver certification and this year we achieved an even higher recognition as an ABC Gold STEP award recipient,” said Leonard A. Bedell, President and CEO of Mobil Steel.

STEP is a safety benchmarking and improvement tool used by ABC members to measure, develop and continuously improve safety and training efforts that ensure worker well-being and health. The STEP program uses 20 key components to safety and health, as well as Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards and reporting requirements to evaluate members’ safety and health performance.

ABC National president and CEO Michael D. Bellaman recognized the ABC Greater Houston chapter safety award winners at a July 21st membership breakfast focused on safety. He reminded ABC members attending the awards breakfast that the 20 key components are leading indicators proven to improve safety performance, and that a company’s strong leadership culture alone improves safety by 50 percent, according to a recent ABC study. The study also noted that ABC STEP participants perform better than Bureau of Labor Statistics national averages in safety performance metrics for the construction industry.

A 2017 self evaluation of Mobil Steel’s safety and health program confirms that the local steel fabricator continues to meet and exceed guidelines of the ABC STEP program. The self evaluation results also demonstrate Mobil Steel’s commitment to safety and health through development and analysis of structured safety and loss prevention programs, and training to reinforce safety programs.

“Mobil Steel and ABC share the core value of employee safety. Whether it is building an employee’s safety culture from the first day on the job or taking time each day to focus on safety, we build an expectation that at Mobil Steel we will work safely,” Bedell added.

The STEP program was established in 1989 by ABC National’s Environment, Health & Safety (EH&S) Committee and developed and written by contractors for contractors. The program provides companies tools to improve safety with a goal to send every construction industry employee home in the same or better condition than which they arrived. Safety tools include sample safety manuals, safety plans, job safety and job hazard analysis, safety presentations, safety posters and job safety videos. The resources are developed by ABC members and partners.

According to ABC, safety performance helps participants in the pre-bid and bid process for securing work and when negotiating cost-effective insurance rates.